TUAPSE — Ukrainian drone strikes on the oil refinery in Tuapse, Russia, caused multiple fires and environmental contamination over a period of about two weeks in April. Tuapse was hit by three Ukrainian drone strikes targeting its oil refinery, including an April 16 attack that ignited a fire lasting two days and an April 20 attack that produced a five-day fire and a large plume of smoke.

By the end of the April 20 strike, at least eight storage tanks at the refinery had been destroyed. Spilled petroleum leaked into the Tuapse River and was carried into the Black Sea, spreading along the coast.

A subsequent analysis of air around Tuapse found concentrations of benzene, xylene, and soot three times above safe levels. Residents were advised to stay indoors, keep windows shut, and wear masks when leaving home. Black rain fell in the town, coating cars and animals in oil.

Elena Lugovenko, a local volunteer, described conditions during the cleanup. "The rain covered all the cars and animals. All the animals are covered in oil. Volunteers have set up animal cleanup centres." Volunteers collected cats, dogs, and birds covered in oil, washed them, and sent them to shelters.

Authorities dispatched more than a dozen boats to clean up the oil slick at sea, and booms were installed on beaches to contain the spill. Emergency crews and volunteers used excavators to clear stony beaches and collected oil in barrels and plastic bags.

Ruslan Khvostov, chairman of the Green Alternative party, addressed the marine impact of the spill. "Oil products settle in the bottom sediments of the Black Sea, disrupting the food chain, and everyone will suffer. The oil slick blocks oxygen, causing mass mortality of fish, shellfish, and bottom dwellers; biodiversity restoration will take five to 10 years or longer, as in the case of the 2024 Kerch spill."

Primorsk and Ust-Luga ports in the Baltic Sea were targeted in March during a similar drone campaign on Russian oil infrastructure. Witold Stupnicki, senior analyst for Europe and Central Asia at ACLED, commented on the pattern of targeting. "Tactically, refineries make good targets for an attritional drone campaign – they are large, fixed, and difficult to defend."